Amores

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. With tremb'ling caution from her husband's side;
  2. When to thy arms, all loose, and disarray'd,
  3. Prepar'd for pleasure, flew the melting maid.
  4. Fix'd on her door, how oft I've hung on high,
  5. Expos'd, and patient of each gazing eye !
  6. How oft, in secret, while the keeper stay'd,
  7. Within her woman's panting bosom laid !
  8. Once sent a birthday gift, the cruel dame
  9. In pieces tore, and gave me to the flame.
  10. I taught thee first to cultivate thy mind;
  11. Thy fancy brightened, and thy wit refin'd;
  12. Thou to my care those merits must allow,
  13. For which my rival would seduce thee now;"
  14. They spoke. I answer'd, "Let me both conjure
  15. To spare a mind with terrors unsecure;
  16. Nor to my charge, when once pronounc'd, be laid
  17. As crimes, the words my trembling tongue has said.
  18. To gain me glory, thy decrees ordain
  19. The regal sceptre and the tragic strain;
  20. With painful labour need I toil for fame,